On 20 February 2026, on the sidelines of its own AI Impact Summit in New Delhi, India signed the Pax Silica Declaration. The gesture was quietly remarkable. The country that gave the twentieth century the doctrine of non-alignment had put its name to a twenty-first-century pact whose entire purpose is to make equidistance impossible.

The tension between normative values and strategic interests has always been an interesting feature of international relations. Yet in recent years, this tension has become visible, shaped by great power competition, energy transitions, and the accelerating race for technological dominance. Against this backdrop, the recent normalization of relations between India and Canada offers a compelling case of how pragmatism is increasingly prevailing over principle in global diplomacy.